Homeland Scoop: 'Carrie Gets Her Mojo Back'

Carrie Mathison will be less of a basket case when Homelandkicks off its second season on Sept. 30, the byproduct of a CIA-free lifestyle and “six months of psyciatric care,” exec producer Alex Gansa told reporters Monday at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills.

“She doesn’t have the same defensiveness,” elaborated Claire Danes, whose alter ego is quickly lured back to the front lines of the war on terrorism by Saul. “She’s been very humbled and she’s suffering from a crisis of confidence. She gets her mojo back but it takes some time.”

* “Huge portions” of the first two episodes were shot on location ”in Israel doubling as Beirut,” said exec producer Howard Gordon.

* Damian Lewis revealed that Brody spends the season “in a state of heightened anxiety and paranoia… He’s more knowingly juggling balls. But essentially he’s everybody’s bitch.”

* Producers explored a number of scenarios for Season 2, including “Carrie and Virgil work[ing] as private investigators.”

* Lewis teased that there’s a “pivotal moment” in Season 2 that recalls Season 1′s seminal “Weekend” episode, only this time, “Carrie very much has the upper hand [and] it’s less romantically inclined than professionally inclined but it’s just as complex.”